Global Reach. Regional Expertise.

Legal Issues in Cleared Derivatives

The impact of legal and documentation developments

31 October 2017 8:30am to 5:00pm GMT

etc Venues St Paul's // 200 Aldersgate // London, EC1A 4HD

FIA is pleased to announce its second one-day European legal conference – “Legal Issues in Cleared Derivatives” - which will look at current legal and documentation developments in cleared derivatives markets. This London-based event will feature legal experts from sell-side, buy-side, law firms and CCPs, as well as regulators, discussing:

FIA’s documentation efforts to create industry standard agreements and templates for centrally-cleared derivatives including for complex clearing structures such as indirect clearing arrangements.

We will also look at potential legal issues that the EMIR Review Proposals have highlighted and discuss possible impact on clearing firms, their clients and CCPs. Attendees will also receive an update on recent regulatory developments in the US that FIA has been focusing on.

This conference is aimed primarily at European regulatory and documentation lawyers at clearing firms, CCPs, buy-side market participants, risk and capital experts, regulators, law firms and other professional advisers.

LOCATION

etc Venues St Paul's // 200 Aldersgate // London, EC1A 4HD

PROGRAMME

09.45 – 10.45: Documentation for tomorrow’s markets, today In late 2016, FIA embarked upon a project of updating, streamlining and creating a state-of-the-art industry standard suite of clearing documentation for exchange-traded and cleared OTC derivatives. This session will focus on the key deliverables of this project, namely the Regulatory Patch, the 2017 Terms of Business, the User Guide and the identification of mandatory provisions in exchanges’ and CCPs’ rules. Practitioners will discuss the use of these terms in practice and the main difficulties that they anticipate when negotiating client clearing terms.

11.00 – 12.15: Indirect clearing for ETDs As the industry has just been presented with the final requirements for indirect clearing arrangements under MiFIR and EMIR, this panel will discuss the outstanding implementation issues and the work that FIA has undertaken to assist firms with meeting some of the requirements, including various documentation templates and operational guidance. What is the minimum level of compliance that firms need to and can achieve on 3 January 2018?

12.15 – 13.00: US legal and regulatory update by Nathaniel Lalone, Partner, Katten Muchin Rosenman, While firms globally have been primarily focused on regulatory developments in Europe, recently, there have been a number of US reg developments that may also have cross-border implications. This session will provide an update on the work that FIA in the US has undertaken on behalf of the industry. What does section 871(m) stand for? What are the latest amendments to the Give-up Agreements? And what are FIA’s US plans for maintaining legal opinions?

13.00 - 14.00: Lunch

14.00 – 15.00: Legal aspects of Brexit for cleared derivatives Central clearing is one of the more contentious issues in the area of financial services when it comes to Brexit discussions. Which known legal uncertainties does Brexit bring? Will the concept of equivalence survive Brexit and are there any legal issues arising out of the application of English law, the jurisdiction of English courts and the enforcement of English judgments? Are there any legal risks arising out of possible transitional arrangements?

Speakers: Simon Puleston Jones, Head of Europe, FIA

Christopher Bates, Partner, Clifford Chance

15.00 – 15.20: Coffee break

15.20 – 16.30: Fintech, finreg, DLT and smart contracts explained – legal evolution or revolution? The last few years have seen rapid developments in the areas of fintech, blockchain and smart contracts. What do these terms mean and how do they apply in the context of financial markets and derivatives clearing in particular? To what extent are they going to revolutionise the way that markets operate today and what hurdles will the industry need to overcome to achieve legal certainty in market transactions globally? This session will examine how the regulatory framework is keeping up with these new technological developments.